Evelyn Napier
The Hon. Evelyn Napier is the son and heir of Viscount Branksome. Evelyn is modest and a keen huntsman. He is friend of the Crawley family and occasionally visits Downton. Background Cora tells Mary that Evelyn's mother was a dear friend of hers, although Cora was unaware that she had died a year earlier. Series One Mary Crawley's fiance Patrick has died and she has no interest in new heir Matthew Crawley. Lady Cora learning that he has written to Mary and is staying nearby with friends tells her to invite him to Downton. She later discusses him with Lord Grantham and his mother, Dowager Countess Violet. They all agree that Evelyn Napier is considered a good match for her, and that the Napiers are wealthy. Mary is to write and invite him to Downton Abbey for an hunt, and Mary is to ride out with him. Evelyn asks the Crawleys if he may invite Kemal Pamuk, his friend from the Turkish embassy to join him, as he is interested in seeing an English fox hunt. Initially he had been asked to take on the task of squiring Turkish diplomat Kemal Pamuk in English society as a duty, but Evelyn found that he liked him more and more, the longer he knew him. Evelyn is very fond of Mary, but he is overshadowed in his pursuit of her attention by the handsome and charming Pamuk, who monopolizes her attention. The next morning Kemel is found dead in his bed and Napier is greatly saddened by his friend's death. As for Mary, he realizes that she finds him boring and, therefore, decides not to pursue her romantically any further. He joins Cora as she is walking on the estate grounds and tells her the that while he does not consider himself a very interesting person, he feels that his future wife should think him so. Rosamund later mentioned in a letter to Robert that Evelyn is intending to marry one of the Semphill girls, but he informs Mary he has recently ended his engagement when he visits her in London. Evelyn is the first person to alert Mary of a rumor circulating about her and Pamuk. He feels somewhat responsible for Mary's social problems, because he had brought Pamuk to Downton, and the scandal would not have happened, otherwise. To make up for this debt he believed he owed, he called in favors and found out that the source of these rumors are from her sister Edith, who had written a letter to the Turkish ambassador. Series Two Mary later mentions receiving a letter from Evelyn that he was injured fighting in the First World War and requesting that he be brought from Middlesbrough to Downton Abbey to recover. Series Four Evelyn returns to Downton, possibly as a suitor to the recently widowed Mary. He is accompanied by his colleague Charles Blake, with whom Mary does not get along. Napier and Blake are studying estate and how they are coping with the changes of modern society. Personality Relationships Quotes Appearances Notes References Napier, Evelyn Napier, Evelyn Napier, Evelyn